Retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf dies at age 78

WASHINGTON - A family member says retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died. He was 78.

A sister of Schwarzkopf, Ruth Barenbaum of Middlebury, Vt., tells The Associated Press that Schwarzkopf died Thursday in Tampa, Fla., from complications from pneumonia.

A much-decorated combat soldier in Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was known popularly as "Stormin' Norman" for a notoriously explosive temper.

He lived in retirement in Tampa, where he had served in his last military assignment as commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command. That is the headquarters responsible for U.S. military and security concerns in nearly 20 countries from the eastern Mediterranean and Africa to Pakistan.